Exciting Sydney southpaw Nikita Tszyu extended his famous boxing family's unbeaten record in Newcastle with an impressive stoppage and Queensland-based Irishman Dennis Hogan finally won a version of a world title.
The 24-year-old Sydney super welterweight Tszyu battered previously unbeaten local boy Darkon Dryden in the latter stages of round three at the Newcastle Entertainment Centre on Saturday and Dryden's father and trainer didn't let him come out for the fourth.
Hogan won the IBO Super welterweight title with a majority points win over Englishman Sam Eggington, making the first defence of the title he won back in June.
The 37-year-old Hogan, who had lost one middleweight and two super welterweight world title fights, was the more efficient fighter, finishing ahead 116-112 on two cards with the third judge scoring it 114-114.
The IBO is widely regarded as a secondary organisation among the many global boxing bodies, but that wouldn't worry Hogan, whose only other loss was to Tim Tszyu in March 2021.
"This is surreal for me," Hogan said. "Me winning this tonight is a sign for anybody just to keep going, keep persisting and just keep believing and you can do it, 100 per cent."
Dryden, who had won all four professional fights inside the distance, landed some good one-off shots but found it hard to consistently tag Tszyu, who moved well and dictated terms with consistent volleys of hurtful blows.
Tszyu improved his family's professional record in Newcastle to 11-0, following in the winning footsteps of father Kostya and older brother Tim, who rated his younger sibling's performance on Saturday as 10 out of 10.
Nikita Tszyu (4-0, 3 KOs) said it was easily the most satisfied he had been after a fight though he noted Dryden got him with a few body shots.
"I've never been so in tune with myself and for the last three weeks I've been living breathing every second. I've been thinking about this and it all came to be," Tszyu said.
Unbeaten world-ranked Sam Goodman produced another dominant display as he retained his WBO Oriental super bantamweight title with a unanimous 10-round points win over fellow Australian Jason Cooper.
Irishman Darragh Foley won the vacant IBO International super lightweight title with a unanimous points win over Blake Minto in a scrappy contest.
Fighting for the first time in almost five years, former Newcastle Knights forward Richie Fa'aoso was stopped by Louis Marsters In the second round of their heavyweight clash.
